EVIL DEAD II
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: There's more budget than logic to this stringing together of off-beat and semi-humorous horror scenes. Creative visual concepts abound and the pace is frenetic and that makes up for a multitude of sins.
I guess in some sense THE EVIL DEAD II is the ultimate horror film...sort of...I guess. Well, what can I say? It does not have much of a plot. It has very little acting, no stars, little continuity, and no logic. But it has action, horror, and black humor in massive doses. Now, THE EVIL DEAD II did have some plot. It was not it's strong suit but it was there. What THE EVIL DEAD boasted most was wit. An attacking corpse would be thrown into the fire. Then some living person would have a bout of remorse and pull it out of the fire. The corpse would look up and politely thank its benefactor for pulling it out of the fire, then continues to try and kill the living. I guess there is some wit in a scene like that and some willingness to experiment with the horror medium. The sequel is one strange semi-horror scene after another.
The plot is that some professor of some sort has translated the Necronomicon (of H. P. Lovecraft fame). He recorded an incantation on tape and now whenever anyone plays the tape it's Anything-Can-Happen-Day. A young couple find the cabin and think it might be an ideal trysting place. Most of one of them is left the next night when the professor's daughter shows up with a friend and two rather strange locals. By that point we have already seen a beheaded corpse climb out of the ground and do a charming dance with its head. We've seen a lot more than that, but that would be telling. And we will see a whole lot more, but that, too, would be telling.
The actors of this piece were, I think, chosen for the terrorized looks they could get on their faces and for how ghoulish they could make themselves look. The script is incredibly contrived, including such touches as having a bridge that would have cost in the millions that leads to nowhere but a shack in the woods. I didn't think boondoggles got that big. For those who like gore and creative off-beat horror, this one's for you. As a fan of the latter, though not of the former particularly, I will give this a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. If you like the bizarre, give it a try.
Mark R. Leeper
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